David A. Huffman (1925–1999) is best known in computer science for his work in
information theory, particularly Huffman codes, and best known in origami as a
pioneer of curved-crease folding. But during his early paper folding in the
1960s and 70s, he also designed and folded over a hundred different
straight-crease origami tessellations. Unlike most origami tessellations
designed in the past twenty years, Huffman's tessellations are mostly
three-dimensional, fold rigidly, and have no locking mechanism. In
collaboration with Huffman's family, our goal is to document all of his
designs by reverse-engineering his models into the corresponding crease
patterns, or in some cases, matching his models with his sketches of crease
patterns. Here we describe several of Huffman's origami tessellations that are
most interesting historically, mathematically, and/or artistically.